


hypothermia prevention service

by thepiniestofapples



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: #Idiots In Love, #and that’s the hill i’ll die on, #but if i dont include humor in everything i do i will die, #he is a good character who deserves more than being written off as some boring shakespeare wannabe, #i tried wording things the way i imagine he’d word them, #i will write smut one day but today is not that day, #i'm my own beta bc i'm a strong independent gremlin, #no beta we die like men, #not idiots as in oblivious though, #so he also ended up having a sense of humor and you know what?, #so i think it could still be pretty open, #the farmer has a name but her only descriptions are brown eyes and blushing later in the story, #the title could also be ‘that one time i almost ended up writing smut’, #they’re just idiots in general and i love them, #third person POV but tbh it’s still from elliott’s perspective, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27091414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepiniestofapples/pseuds/thepiniestofapples
Summary: In retrospect, perhaps an old cottage by the sea wasn't the best idea. Romantic, yes — who could deny the appeal of finding yourself while living in a rustic cabin by the seashore, falling asleep to the sound of waves and waking up with the cry of seagulls?Of course, the appeal isn't as strong when there's a freak blizzard around him, barely held back by the old wooden walls, and no stable heating system. The seagulls had grown tiresome rather quickly, too.Just as he idly wondered how long it would take for someone to find his frozen corpse, there was a knock on the door.AKA elliott is a romantic dumbass who didn’t think things through before spending winter in an ancient cottage, and the farmer is a determined dumbass who’s not about to let her favourite writer freeze to death
Relationships: Elliott/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Elliott/Player (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 104





	hypothermia prevention service

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to play around with elliott’s character here, draw out his more humorous side (as well as his hornier side because honestly the amount of people on this site who think all he does is talk you to sleep is astounding — he asked my farmer for another baby the same day their first one aged up into a toddler and if that ain’t eager idk what is) and to be honest i’m really happy with the way it turned out.
> 
> also i've edited as best i could but it's 1.40 AM and my phone is at 2% so i'll check for further mistakes in the morning but here we go!!!

Winter had arrived and Elliott already hated it.

Well, hate was perhaps too strong a word. He adored the way the snow glimmered in the light as though made of a million small diamonds. There were also precious few things as peaceful as early winter mornings, watching his breath come out in clouds while the rest of the world was only just waking up. The boy in him still liked to imagine himself as a dragon puffing out smoke.

Unfortunately, the dragon breath lost its magic the moment it occurred inside his own cabin.

In retrospect, perhaps an old cottage by the sea wasn't the best idea. Romantic, yes — who could deny the appeal of finding yourself while living in a rustic cabin by the seashore, falling asleep to the sound of waves and waking up to the cry of seagulls?

Of course, the appeal isn't as strong when there's a freak blizzard around him barely held back by the old wooden walls, and no stable heating system. The seagulls had grown tiresome rather quickly, too.

Teeth chattering, Elliott again inspected his windows to make sure they were properly shut. They did little to hold the winds at bay when the wood around them was ancient and riddled with cracks, unfortunately. He considered going back to huddling in his bed — there wasn't much else he could do to warm himself, since the heater, too, had decided it was far too cold to function properly.

Just as he idly wondered how long it would take for someone to find his frozen corpse, there was a knock on the door.

He froze (figuratively for now, but he was sure it was soon bound to be literal judging by the rattling of his teeth), squinting at his door. Surely he was imagining things? No one could possibly be stupid or reckless enough to brave this weather.

Elliott had almost managed to convince himself auditory hallucinations might just be an early symptom of hypothermia when the knock came again, more forcefully.

Not giving himself the time to ponder the possible consequences of opening the door (would he be able to close it again or would the wind simply tear his poor door off its hinges?), Elliott opened it only to be greeted by the newest addition to the town and, quite frankly, the only person who could indeed be reckless enough to be out frolicking in the middle of a blizzard.

Sera.

"Hey," she grinned. Or at least he interpreted her squinting eyes as a smile, not actually being able to see her mouth beneath the thick scarf covering the lower half of her face.

"What are you doing?" He ushered her inside, shutting the door the second she’d stepped into the cabin. "You could die out there!"

She took off her cap, showering his poor floor in snow and revealing a flattened mop of hair. "I figured that so could you, in here," she explained, running a hand through the strands and messing them up to her liking.

His eyebrows shot up. "And you decided that was a fate worth joining?"

She grinned again, taking the rest of her outerwear off. "I decided that was a fate worth preventing." She shrugged off the backpack she'd been carrying onto the floor. "I saw the blizzard and imagined you all alone in this — sorry, I gotta say it — dump of a cabin and thought maybe you could use some warming up."

His heart stumbled over itself at her words, quickening its pace with familiar fervor. Honestly, Elliott was half-surprised it’d taken this long for his pulse to propel itself into a frenzy, given the way his body seemed convinced he was either having a heatstroke or running a marathon every time Sera was in proximity.

"Now let's see here…" She rifled through the bag. With a noise of approval, she pulled out the fluffiest blanket Elliott had ever laid eyes upon. "A gift." She threw it over his head.

He smiled, despite the static disaster his hair had become after the blanket was off his head and around his shoulders. The relief was immediate — he wasn't warm, not yet, but at least he was protected from the cold breeze that seeped through the cracks in the cabin walls. Burrowing his nose into the lilac fabric, Elliott was delighted to discover that the blanket wasn't only incredibly soft — it also smelled like her.

"I'm not much of a coffee person," Sera said sheepishly as she pulled out a thermos. "So this is just some of Gus' special hot chocolate. I managed to snag the recipe as a reward for getting him some sort of octopus."

His smile grew. As much as he enjoyed coffee, the thoughtfulness behind it all meant she could have given him salmonberry tea and Elliott would have loved it.

… perhaps 'loved' was too strong a word for anything containing salmonberry, but he'd have been grateful nonetheless!

"I’m pretty sure you'd prefer coffee but this is what I had lying around at home." She rubbed her neck awkwardly. "And I doubt Pierre opened his shop today so I didn't even bother trying."

"It's perfect."

It was true. Elliott couldn't remember the last time someone had gone out of their way for him like this. The thought of Sera in her warm farmhouse fretting over him in his cabin and what she should bring was enough to make his heart soar.

She smiled, ducking her head bashfully. She was obviously pleased with herself, and the sight only made Elliott's smile broaden and his heartbeat quicken again. He was especially delighted by the pink tinge on her cheeks and nose which had decidedly nothing to do with the cold.

He was no fool — he knew he wasn’t alone in his feelings. His eyes were on Sera far too often to miss the fact that hers were on him just as frequently. Too many soft smiles and hand brushes, too little effort on both of their parts to maintain space between them on beach walks for there to be any doubt. Their dance was a slow and gentle one, and although he longed for its climax, he was satisfied with its current tempo.

Elliott did not consider patience to be one of his virtues, but he’d wait an eternity for her.

She kept her hands in her bag — just how many things had she fit in there?

The mystery grew further as she pulled out yet another folded-up blanket. "I may have panicked."

This time he couldn't help but laugh. "I can assure you that I don't mind at all."

She glanced around the cabin, something akin to a frown beginning to form on her face. "No kidding. It's not much better in here than out there." She turned to him with a half-smile, concern tangible underneath the light-hearted tone. "How have you survived until now?"

His chest grew warm at her worry. "The heater usually does a fine job of keeping me relatively warm."

She pursed her lips. "And yet it conveniently stopped working the minute a snowstorm hit."

"It _is_ rather fortunate that you decided to swing by," he said lightly, before switching to a genuine tone. "I truly appreciate you coming here — I would have done so even if you hadn't brought all of this with you."

She smiled gently, brown eyes softening. "I couldn't stay at home knowing you were out here."

His heart stuttered. The dance they'd been doing around each other for the past few months was nearing its finale, Elliott could feel it. Still, he couldn't resist dragging it out just a bit more.

"Oh?" he asks with the slightest touch of coyness to his voice, narrowing his eyes in what he hopes is a semi-sultry look. "And why would my wellbeing be so important as to make you leave your wonderfully warm farmhouse and brave such a dangerous storm, pray tell?"

It was a challenge, they both knew it. He held his breath, waiting to see whether she would take it.

She bit her lip. His eyes were immediately drawn to the action.

"You know why."

And then Elliott's lips were on hers, swallowing up her words as soon as they left her mouth. The dance was over, now replaced by a symphony of soft sighs and gentle caresses.

"I do," he sighed in-between kisses, one hand tangled in her hair while the other was firmly planted on her lower back. "But I admit I very much wanted to hear you say it."

"I don't believe I said anything about this," she mumbled with a silly, half-dazed grin on her face, her own hands desperately cradling the back of his neck and head. "You're making an awful lot of assumptions."

He hummed thoughtfully. "How terribly presumptuous of me. Should I pull away?" He moved on to kissing her jawline, making no effort to loosen his grip.

"I would like to see you try." She pressed herself even closer to him than he thought possible. _She could come closer still_ , whispered a voice in the back of his mind.

He chuckled, ignoring the whisper. "The mere thought is too much to bear." He returned to her lips with a content sigh, sliding the hand which had been tangled in her hair slowly down her back. "Where would you like to go from here?"

Her breath stuttered and he knew his meaning was clear. Elliott would abide by her wishes wherever those might lead them — there wouldn't ever be any pressure to take this further than she was willing to go.

She pulled away to press kisses along his nose, cheeks and eyelids. "I'd like to take this slow."

He made a noise of agreement as he all but melted into her touch. Desire was pooling inside him, but Elliott wanted to nurture this without rushing things, too, so he willed it away. Tried to, at any rate. "It _is_ far too cold to take anything off," he said lightly, an attempt to convince himself as well as reassure her.

Sera turned her head to glare at the heater at that, and he almost whined at the sudden loss. "Speaking of which, I'm taking you to the farmhouse if that thing doesn't start behaving itself."

"I won't object to that." He pressed his nose into her neck and inhaled deeply, fully intending to commit her scent to memory.

Or at least he would have, had she not yelped at the contact and almost jumped out of his arms entirely. He blinked owlishly at the sudden lack of contact, his arms hanging loosely around her waist.

She was apologising before Elliott could even begin to feel anxious about whatever he had done, flailing about with her hands briefly before settling them on his upper arms.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!” Her face was the most wonderful shade of red and he was just as entranced by the sight as he was confused. “It’s just- Your nose was kinda cold and I- It’s not that I didn’t enjoy- My neck is just really sensitive and I wasn’t expecting- I’m sorry!”

The desire he’d been wrangling down returned ten-fold as his mind registered her words and was immediately flooded with all the ways he could use this new tidbit of information.

His expression must have betrayed the direction his mind had taken, because Sera was biting her lip once again, her blush deepening and creeping down her neck.

In a gargantuan effort to make his voice stable, Elliott licked his lips and tried to get the words out. “Don’t… Don’t worry about it. No harm done.”

She nodded, swallowing hard. “Okay.” Her fingers tightened around his biceps before relaxing, allowing herself to be pulled back in.

He pressed a soft kiss upon her forehead, a far cry from what his body craved but Elliott wasn't about to risk spooking her away again. Still, he couldn't resist a little teasing.

"Don't assume you're out of the woods yet, my dear," he murmured against her forehead, smirking. "I'm not above exploring _that_ reaction in the future, should you allow me."

He could only grin in delight as she yelped and turned a deep shade of scarlet once more, tightening his arms around her as she hid her face in his neck. Turning his head so he could inhale the sweet scent of her shampoo, he let out a sigh of deep contentment.

This was where he was meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> i really hope this made you smile! i smiled a lot while writing it! i will most definitely write more for these two bc they’re my main playthrough and i love them too much and honestly i haven’t played enough with the other bachelors/bachelorettes yet to feel confident in writing them — but i will bc you can bet seb, shane and haley ain’t escaping my clutches.
> 
> feel free to enjoy this silently, but i would really appreciate kudos, comments or bookmarks! i haven’t posted my writing publicly since my anime days back in deviantart, and i’d love to see that other people besides myself enjoy my writing! like i said though, i honestly just hope this made you smile — the rest is just a bonus!


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